1680 Picture questions.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Yes, that's a purse hanging from O'Neill's belt. As to O'Neill's costume, there is some controversy as to whether or not Irish Chiefs in the late 17th century actually dressed in this manner (unlike the portrait of Mungo Murray, also painted by Wright in Dublin at about the same time). It has been suggested that O'Niell's coustume was based on descriptions of the mode of dress worn by chiefs during the Tudor/Elizabethan era. The argument in support of this theory is that a pre-reformation style of dress was chosen to re-enforce the strong Roman Catholic faith of O'Neill; indeed, the entire picture seems to suggest a strong anti-reformation theme: O'Neill is armed with a dart, a traditional Irish weapon; behind him a servant holding many darts, indicative of the willingness of the Irish to defend their faith. O'Neill is standing over a suit of Japanese armour-- at that time the Japanese were persecuting Catholics in the most horrific manner and even Protestant Europeans where shocked at the Japanese behavior-- again alluding to defeating the oppressors of the Roman Catholic faith.

Now, because of the controversy over the exact manner in which late 17th century Irish chiefs may have dressed, I don't think that one can say with absolute accuracy that the purse in the picture is a sporran, at least in the sense that we here on XMTS would accept or understand that word. If O'Neill's costume was created for the picture then the purse/sporran could be nothing more than a fanciful prop created by the painter to give balance to the picture. The truth is, we just don't know for certain.

What is useful is that this picture clearly shows that while the Scots did wear kilts in the 1680s, clearly the Irish did not.